The Simulacrum

Okay, so that escalated pretty quickly, but I wasn't too surprised. Granted, I never bothered to pivot my Far Sight point of view around to the other side of the doors, but a Chimera being there made… some sense. I mean, this was the Abyss, and where else were one of these monsters supposed to show up but here? Not to mention, since the Ninhursag patriarch barricaded himself into the Mana Chamber, there was no better way to keep him in check until Crowy's arrival than having a magic-resistant beastie stationed in front of the door.

Case in point…

"Back, you disloyal beast! Back!" the portly man yelled and made a series of hand gestures. His hand lashed out towards the crack in the door, and from his palm erupted a bolt of lightning as thick as his forearm.

The flash lit up the dim chamber with blinding light, followed by a pained growl as the Chimera staggered back… for about a second before it began to pry open the metal door wings like it was only hit on the snout with a rolled-up newspaper.

The other Abyssals in the room were on the verge of panic, reasonably so, but then Josh yelled out, "Everyone, quick! Escape through the hole we made!"

The patriarch, naturally, decided to use the opportunity to be obstinate and exclaimed, "This is my castle! Don't you dare order my men around!"

"With all due respect, sir, shut up and get in line!" the guy retorted and didn't even wait for him to respond before turning to Snowy. "Lili! Take the lead and get them out of there!"

"But… the Chimera!" she objected while frantically gesturing at the steadily deforming door.

"You're the only one of us who understands the layout of this place! Let's get out of here first, and then we'll figure out the rest on the move!"

"O-Okay!"

Josh's explanation wasn't exactly reassuring or airtight, but under the circumstances, my sister just ran with it and approached the Abyssal dignitaries clustered at the back of the chamber. Meanwhile, the guy's attention fell on the class rep and her holographic companion, and he bellowed, "Ammy! Grab the cube and follow after them!"

His words jolted her out of a momentary stupor, and she yelped, "Ah! Yes, I'm on it!" as she turned on her heel to approach the pedestal. Meanwhile, Josh pulled out both his sword and shield and took up a defensive stance, and not a second too soon, as the hinges of the entrance gave up and the Chimera tore them off the wall with a guttural grunt.

It was hard to make out the creature's current body plan, due to the lack of proper lighting, but at a glance, it was about the same size as the one I encountered back during the school incident. It had three pairs of red eyes with ominously smouldering, sickly yellow irises set in an ape-like face, except for a jutting muzzle filled with pointy yellow teeth. It had a large, muscular upper body covered with a mixture of rust-coloured fuzzy fur and small scales, while its hind legs were comparatively small.

Its movements also reminded me of an enormous gorilla's, as once the dust settled, it let out yet another throaty roar and dashed forth on its knuckles, practically dragging its lowed body and long lizard-like tail behind. The charge came to a momentary halt when the Ninhursag patriarch threw another lightning bolt at the creature, and while it staggered, the sudden flash of light likely did more to disorient it than whatever damage it received. If anything, it just got more pissed off and focused on the plump man.

"What are you still doing here?!" Josh roared as he hurriedly wedged himself between the two, just in time to receive a clumsy yet heavy blow from the Chimera for his trouble.

He caught the creature's oversized knuckle on his shield, sending magical sparks flying through the air that lit up the surroundings. The impact sent him reeling back, yet he quickly regained his footing and squared off against the beast again.

"I am the Head of House Ninhursag, and I'm—!" the patriarch bellowed back, only to fall silent when someone grabbed him from the back and put him in a full nelson hold from behind. "Wha…? How dare you!? What do you think you're doing!?"

"I'm helping! I think!" Hareng Ninurta exclaimed with apparent enthusiasm and started dragging the man one and a half times his size towards the hole in the wall. "Everyone else's waiting, so let's go!"

He wasn't kidding, as by this point most of the Abyssal nobles retreated into the maintenance corridor.

"Josh, hurry!" Ammy shouted from the other side, but the guy remained stationary and held up his shield again.

"I'll stall it until everyone's—!" He couldn't finish the sentence because he was nearly sent flying by a backhand slap from the Chimera. He rolled and sprang back onto his feet, and then slammed the flat of his blade against the middle of his shield. "You missed, you overgrown monkey! Come and get some!"

I honestly had no idea if Chimeras could even understand human speech, but the one in the chamber was certainly more pissed than before, and it turned its full attention to Josh. Unfortunately for the guy, the beast had an advantage both in size and reach, and so when it raised its enormous knuckle, bigger than Josh's head, for a vertical smash, all he could do was to dodge out of the way.

If there was one silver lining, it's that the Chimera was pretty slow and ponderous. Maybe because of its unbalanced body, or due to the low lighting conditions, but it had to readjust itself after every strike, allowing Josh to look for openings and deliver quick and accurate slashes and stabs at its side and abdomen. Not that it did much.

"What the hell is this thing made of?!" he cried out in audible outrage when the stab he put all his weight into only penetrated a few centimeters into the creature's side, and I had to wonder about that myself. I mean, I remember that I could skewer the last Chimera I fought with Brang's spear, no problem, and I had no magical power-ups at the time.

…

Actually, maybe that was the problem? Chimeras were effectively immune to magic, so maybe Josh couldn't do much damage to it because his sword was infused with mana? Such musings were only academic, as I had no way to give any tips to Josh at the moment. Or rather, I technically could if I contacted Judy and told her to tell him, but by the time I realised this, the guy was sent flying across the chamber again.

"Josh! Everyone's outside already! Stop being a hero and get out of there already!" Ammy cried out again, looking more angry than worried, and while our resident protagonist obviously didn't want to run away, seeing that he was alone in the room soon made him dash towards the hole in the wall all the same.

The Chimera wasn't standing still either, and while it wasn't exactly nimble, it wasn't going to let its target get away so easily. It lunged after Josh with an inelegant but by no means slow hurtle, its knuckles slamming against the floor like it personally insulted its mother. All the while roaring from the top of its lungs, of course. I still couldn't figure out why they (along with the Colossi) were doing that all the time. Maybe psychological warfare?

Anyhow, Josh was faster and literally leapt through the hole, but not fast enough to fully escape, and he let out a startled yelp and fell over when a huge, muscular arm reached after him and caught him by his left foot.

"Argh! Son of a bitch—!"

"Look out!"

He awkwardly turned and raised his sword to hack at the fingers clamped around his leg, but Snowy was one step faster. With a flash of magical light, she conjured a huge icicle and sent it flying at the forearm of the creature, just as it was about to pull Josh back. Once again, the magical projectile didn't penetrate deep, but it caused the Chimera to flinch, just as the guy swung his sword again.

There was a pained roar, followed by another flash of bright light, this time a warm orange one as the class rep sent a dozen or so small fireballs through the hole, exploding all over the Chimera's face. That was the last straw, and it finally let go of Josh as it staggered back, allowing the girls to pull him out of reach.

It was a good thing they did, because the beast was only stunned for a few seconds before it assaulted the hole again, only to be stuck as its huge shoulders didn't allow it passage. It heaved and struggled and rammed its body against the opening over and over again.

"It won't be stuck here for long," the Ninhursag patriarch scoffed. He shook off Hareng at some point and was now busy fixing his clothes while glaring at Josh and company. Then he hissed, "I hope you have a plan."

"Sort of," Josh responded reflexively as he rose from the ground, only to hastily correct himself. "Absolutely. We definitely have a plan."

The round man looked at him with eminent skepticism, so our resident protagonist quickly cleared his throat and pointed down the corridor.

"First, we head that way. There should be a set of stairs leading to the… other wing. We'll get up there and decide on which way to go depending on the circumstances."

The Abyssals in tow were obviously none too reassured by his words, but it wasn't like they had much of a choice, and with the Chimera still ramming itself against the hole and the other direction being filled with debris, they soon fell in line and followed Snowy and Ammy as they led them down the only viable direction. Snowy, because she was the only one with the barest hint of an idea about where to go, and the class rep, because she was the one with the light.

With the dignitaries in the middle, that left Josh, Hareng, and the patriarch bringing up the rear, and it wasn't long before the only non-Abyssal of the three broke the tense silence with a rather odd question.

"Where did that Chimera come from, anyway?"

"Excuse me?" the Ninhursag noble responded a touch incredulously, so Josh hastily reiterated.

"I mean, we did some research before coming to the Abyss, and from what I've heard, each Noble House has at most one or two Chimeras. Where did the Ninurtas get one?"

"That was our Chimera," the man hissed, his glare aimed directly at the half-bare Ninurta walking beside him.

"Ah, Sir, please don't look at me like that! Our family gained custody of the Chimera through legitimate negotiations in my great-grandfather's generation!" He let out a wistful sigh and slowly shook his head. "Who would've thought it would be used like this one day? The river of history is truly full of twists and turns!"

The patriarch looked like he wanted to punch the ever-loving daylight right out of the young man, but with Josh in the middle, he thought better of it. Not that they had time for a scuffle anyway, because they quickly reached the top of the spiral stairs and were met with… nothing in particular.

"We're near the guest suites," the owner of the place noted with mild annoyance as he looked around the large room. On their left was a series of fancy leadlight windows with diamond panes set into a plain white wall, while on their right, they had a couple of heavy wooden doors, all but one opening into long, well-lit hallways. "There are only two ways out of here: across the Old Pavilion, or right through the main entrance."

"Which way, boss?" Hareng asked with enthusiasm unsuited for the circumstances, but then he shuddered at the sound of another roar echoing up from the stairwell, and he urged, "Which is the quicker one?"

"We need to be cautious," Ammy warned on the side while she undid her magical light, then pointed down the hallway. "Even after everything we did, I don't see or hear anyone nearby. We might be walking into an ambush."

"No, I think that's because of Team B, and…" Josh started, but then there was another roar from downstairs, this time much closer, so he raised his voice and exclaimed, "Listen! We need to escape the castle and get down to the docks! Which is the shortest way to get there?"

"Were you not listening?" the patriarch scoffed. "It's either the Old Pavilion, or we go through the guest quarters and across the courtyard to get to the main entrance. Those are the only two options we have."

"Um… I think they're probably mustering at the main hall, so we should go the other way," Snowy proposed, but Josh didn't approve of the plan.

Instead, he gazed through the windows overlooking the warehouse district of and train yards of Digirmah, and whispered the four most dangerous words he could've uttered at this junction.

"What would Leo do?"

"Come again?" Hareng blurted out, but Jost refused to clarify himself, and after a few short breaths, he suddenly pulled back his sword. "Whoa! What are you—?!"

Before anyone else could respond, he swung his blade while releasing whatever mana he had stored up in his blade after the scuffle with the Chimera. It resulted in a loud bang and tore the windows out of their frames, along with a good chunk of the wall, much to the owner's distress.

"What are you doing?! Those were antique windows!"

Josh promptly disregarded his objection and pointed outside.

"We're taking a shortcut. Anyone who can fly, get to it!"

"And those who can't?" asked one of the middle-aged dignitaries, and a couple others shared his reservations.

"I-I've got it!" Snowy jumped to the rescue, literally, by leaping through the hole and spreading her wings. As soon as she stabilised mid-air, she began waving her hands in slow, elegant motions, in dire contrast with her strained expression. "I'll make a path… or a slide! Trust me!"

"Got it!" Josh yelled back at her, but then he spun on his heel and took up a defensive posture. "We'll buy you some time."

"We?" Hareng muttered as he took a step back. "My friend, I'm not sure I'm cut out for…"

His complaints died in his throat when a sinewy arm emerged from the spiral staircase behind them, pulling up an elongated upper body. The creature's head, now more resembling a dinosaur's than an ape's, emerged from below, and as soon as it locked eyes with Josh, it abruptly leapt out and landed with catlike grace onto a pair of long, digitigrade hind legs.

"What the hell? They can change that fast?" he blurted out in alarm, and if I were there, I would've honest-to-goodness smacked him on the back of the head, because while he never fought one before, I had explained how they worked to him in detail. I guess the saying 'seeing is believing' applied here.

More importantly, this time Ammy also joined the fray, along with the Ninhursag patriarch, to stall the Chimera and allow the rest to retreat through the hole in the wall.

…

Wait. Didn't that already happen downstairs…? Don't tell me this is going to be a pattern…